


The right choice

by lunaemoth



Series: December Images Prompts Challenge [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Challenge Response, F/M, Fluff, Parent Tony Stark, Surrogacy, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-09
Updated: 2014-12-09
Packaged: 2018-02-28 19:25:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2744276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaemoth/pseuds/lunaemoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the December Images Prompts Challenge of fuckyeahdarcylewis.tumblr.com based on this <a href="http://media.tumblr.com/b4c6bd419f7ede56b0140b84dd8fc274/tumblr_inline_nfawf1zcJw1qbvhdg.jpg">image</a></p>
<p>
  <i> “That one!”</i>
  <br/><i> Darcy took a step back to look at the mug Alby was pointing at. She snorted at the writing: ‘Dear Dad, thanks 4 putting up with a spoiled, ungrateful, messy, bratty child like my sibling. Love, your favorite.’</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	The right choice

 “That one!”

Darcy took a step back to look at the mug Alby was pointing at. She snorted at the writing: ‘ _Dear Dad, thanks 4 putting up with a spoiled, ungrateful, messy, bratty child like my sibling. Love, your favorite_.’

“What do you think?”

“He’ll love it,” she confirmed with a wide smile. Tony would have a field day with this, that’s for sure. She took the mug and ruffled Alby’s auburn hair. “Good idea, honey. Let’s go.”

They paid for it and waited at the shop’s door. Darcy hid the mug in her bag and winked at Alby, who smiled and hugged her leg, leaning heavily against her while they watched the people shopping early for Christmas.

“Are you tired, sweetie?” He hummed and nodded. She put a hand on the back of his head. “They shouldn’t be too long anymore and then we can go home.”

“Can we give him the mug tonight?”

“If your sister agrees, yes, you can.”

He pouted. “She’ll say no, just to annoy me.”

Darcy smiled slyly. “Well, then we won’t tell her that you want to, that’s all.”

He grinned, in a way very reminiscent of his father. “You’re the best godmother ever!”

“Yes, I am.” She winked. When he yawned, she crouched to hug him. “Did you stay up late to read again, young man?”

He shook his head. “No… but I had nightmares.”

“Yeah? Did you cuddle your Iron Bear?”

He nodded very seriously. “But it wasn’t enough so I went to dad and he hugged me while he worked. I fell asleep in his lap.”

“Aww, I hope Jarvis took a picture.”

She saw Rhodey coming forward with Victoria, the little girl sitting on his shoulders with a very self-satisfied smile, and stood up.

“Ready to go?” Darcy asked.

“Ready,” Rhodey confirmed, ruffling Alby’s hair on the way. His hair was a bird’s nest anyway.

Happy, who had shadowed them from afar until then, immediately opened the way for them. Darcy held Alby’s hand, careful to keep him close and away from the crowd walking around them, even when he stared at the huge Christmas tree in the middle of the mall.

“Vicky, when do you want to give daddy your gift? Tonight? Or should we wait _all the way_ until tomorrow evening?”

At the idea they should wait _that_ _long_ , the impatient little girl immediately answered “Tonight”! Darcy winked at Alby when they stepped into the elevator. He hid a smile and hugged her legs again. When Darcy looked up, both Happy and Rhodey were watching her with a knowing little grin. Rhodey pointed at Alby with his chin and whispered “Is he okay?”

“Tired,” she answered quietly.

The fraternal twins were quite different from each other. Victoria Maria Stark was extrovert and a buddle of energy, like her father. Albert Howard Stark was introvert, quiet and thoughtful, like his mother. They were both really smart and Darcy was sometimes very glad they didn’t collaborate often. That would be a nightmare. She babysat them often enough that the idea of Alby’s scientific genius combined with Vicky’s sharp social mind terrified her. One day, they will managed Stark Industries and that day will be terrible for their competitors, she was pretty sure of it.

But, as their surrogate mother and Alby’s godmother, one that wasn’t a genius in anyway, she would make damn sure they had the best childhood ever.

 

When they walked in the Stark’s penthouse at the top of the Avengers’ tower, Pepper and Tony were lounging on the couch. They straightened up and smiled when their children immediately ran to their father.

“Daddy, daddy, we’ve something for you!” Vicky said.

“Darcy and Rhodey helped us,” Alby added, following dutifully his mother’s lessons on good manners.

Tony lifted them on the couch beside him and wrapped his arms around their shoulders, pressing them against him to kiss them both on the forehead. “Is that so?”

Darcy and Rhodey looked at each other, communicating silently and nodding when they agreed. They put the gifts on the coffee table at the same time. When they stepped back, Darcy burst into laughter when she realized what happened. She leaned against Rhodey’s shoulder while the Air Force Colonel snorted, trying to keep his laughter quiet.

They both had bought the same mug. The only difference was that one was white with black writings (Alby) and the other black with white text (Vicky).

Inevitably, the twins weren’t happy. Vicky hollered: “You copied!”

“I didn’t! We finished first! You’re the one who copied!” Alby protested, pushing his sister away and trying to escape her fists.

Tony was so busy laughing that Pepper had to be the one stepping in, separating the children and calming them down. It took a long time, long enough for all of them to quiet down.

“Now,” Pepper said, “shouldn’t you say to daddy why you bought him a gift?”

Vicky was sulking and she refused to look up from the lap of her mother. Alby went to his dad and took his hand. “Darcy said if we wanted to give you something we didn’t need to wait for Christmas because you didn’t really like Christmas. So, we didn’t wait for Christmas, but we went to the same shop and we ended up buying the same thing. Sorry?”

Tony lifted him until Alby could wrap his arms around his neck and hugged him, kissing his cheek.

“Don’t be sorry, it’s perfect. It’s a matching set: I can keep one in the lab and one here. See?”

The children lightened up and Victoria climbed on the couch to hug her dad too.

Trying not to break their moment, Darcy kept her “aww, cuties” feelings for herself and pointed her head to the kitchen. Rhodey nodded. They quietly left the little family hugging each other.

“Seriously, I didn’t see that one coming,” Darcy said once they were alone. “They’re more alike than we tend to think.”

“Yeah. When you think that most seven years old wouldn’t have look twice at those mugs with too big words and not enough colors…” Rhodey shook his head and activated the coffee machine.

“Let’s not do that again, though, yeah? Alby already asked to find something for Pepper. We’re not going to the same shop together again, even though it’ll make Happy happier.”

“Yeah, it’d be war.”

“Exactly. Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure Alby’ll want to create something by himself anyway. He hadn’t the time for Tony, but if he asks Bruce and I, he could manage something for Christmas.”  

“Good luck with that. I’m pretty sure Vicky’ll ask advices from Maria.”

“Lucky you, getting out of the ‘choosing a gift for a woman’ dilemma.”

Darcy took the coffee cup offered to her and lingered next to the screen embedded in the fridge. In pause mode, it was showing off a slide show of family’s photos. One of them was Darcy on a hospital bed, Tony and Pepper on each side, holding the twins in their arms. They all had big grins, though Darcy looked tired.

“Nostalgia?” Rhodey asked when he saw her looking at it.

“Not really,” she answered. “I can’t remember the number of times I thought I was totally mad doing this… and I don’t really miss the labor, you know.” She had the best midwives to take care of her and it hadn’t been so awful (especially compared to what she had read about before, crazy girl that she was, trying to freak herself out…) but she wasn’t a pregnancy addict.

“I know I already told you this, but what you did meant a lot…”

She nodded. She knew that. She wouldn’t have been a surrogate mother for anyone.

After she had been injected with Extremis, Pepper had found out she couldn’t carry children and it had been really hard on her, even though she tried to pretend it wasn’t, she lacked her usual spirit. Tony had been depressed seeing her like that, feeling guilty. After he nearly blew up Jane in his distraction, Darcy finally took charge of the matter. And ten months later she had twins for the Stark. Her own family thought she was crazy, even with all the money the Stark spent on her to thank her and compensate her. Even Darcy had had doubts.

“Darcy!” Alby ran into the kitchen and hugged her legs again. “Tomorrow, can we go see Bruce?” He whispered with big pleading eyes.

She smiled and lifted him to kiss him. “Of course, honey.”

Seven years later, she knew she had made exactly the right choice. She had had the perfect opportunity to annoy Tony with impunity (and that had been so much fun! the way he always kept an eye on her had been annoying and priceless all at once), she had got really close to Pepper, and she had cuddled with them, their hands on her distended belly. And then there were those two bundles of joy at the end.

“Can you tell me the Cinderella story tonight? You’re the best fairy godmother!”

She grinned and looked up to see the fond smiles of Pepper and Tony.

Yep. The right choice.

**Author's Note:**

> This is not much, but I'm a mess of feelings right now (anxiety, urgh), and I was thinking about the last one about Tony/Darcy and I had that idea of Darcy has a surrogate mother for a while too (it probably doesn't respect the legal way it works in the USA but I don't know anything about that, after all it isn't even legal in France...). So, I hope you liked the fluff, because that's all of it. ^^  
> Oh, yeah, and I totally used the name Alby as short from Albert (because Albert Einsten, yes) from _the Maze Runner_.
> 
> **NB:** I'm french and this isn't beta-ed. If you noticed any mistakes, please send me a comment with the way to correct it and I'd be pleased to do so.  
>  You can find me on tumblr : lunaemoth.tumblr.com


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